God’s forgiveness is complete, but it doesn’t erase every consequence of sin. Exploring the guilt offering in the Book of Leviticus reveals how God’s grace calls us to confess, repent, and take action to restore what our sins have broken.
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guilt
Children who are born innocent don’t need God. They don’t need a God to teach them, a Saviour to rescue them, the Spirit to empower them, or the Bible to guide them. They just need everyone to get out of the way and let them be true to themselves. But the Bible says the opposite.
In the days following Will Smith’s slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards, almost every aspect of the altercation was dissected. Did Chris Rock know that Pinket Smith had alopecia? Did the domestic violence that Will Smith witnessed as a child trigger his passion in defending his wife? Was the Academy to blame in not removing Smith from the ceremony? Fellow actors have rushed in to express their feelings of outrage or support. Analysts plot Smith’s next moves. And everybody seems to love “being concerned.” But there’s a question that nobody’s bothered to ask.
Christians love the Parable of the Prodigal Son. And why wouldn’t we? There’s drama, loss, family tension, crisis, and reconciliation – all the ingredients of a great story! While it’s one that we love, there are lessons that we seem to keep missing when we read it. Jesus’ parable wasn’t just told as a beautiful illustration of the gospel. It was told in response to the grumbling of the religious elite over his eating and drinking with sinners (Luke 15:1-2). There are 3 lessons we can’t afford to miss.
I was speaking to someone recently and I could see that they were struggling to understand what felt like mixed signals in the Bible. On the one hand, there are verses that speak of believers as being clean, washed of their sins, forgiven, and made holy. On the other hand, there are verses that speak of God being grieved by our sins and disciplining us for them. When the Bible speaks of our forgiveness and cleansing is God just trying to inspire us? Or when the Bible speaks of the ongoing presence of our sins is God just trying to scare us? When God sees His children is He shaking His head in frustration? Or is He graciously looking away from the areas where we still falter? How should believers understand God’s attitude toward them when they sin? Let me suggest that there are two hats that can help us make sense of the Bible’s competing descriptions of God’s attitude toward us.
I watched the 80’s throwback movie “Blinded by the Light” recently, and not being a Bruce Springsteen fan, it was mostly the non-Boss music that made me reminisce. Hearing the Pet Shop Boys took me back to my high school days and the music that was so much a part of my life at a time of life when music seems so important. One song that stood out to me was “It’s a Sin,” the second hit from the Pet Shop Boys after their debut single, “West End Girls.” As I listened to the chorus, it struck me that I remembered more of the melody than the lyrics. I think I spent more time dancing to the song than actually listening to its message. Now, so many years later, I read the lyrics of lead singer Neil Tennant and reflected on them with sadness and regret. His words give voice to many people’s experience of religion, so even if you’ve never heard of the band, you may relate to their message.
Repentance is one of those old words. It doesn’t get used a lot in everyday conversation. It isn’t a word that trends on Twitter or show up in the titles of the latest bestsellers. But it’s a significant word and more importantly a crucial concept. That’s why I was intrigued by the article, “Are you repenting the wrong way?” by Jon Snyder. He leads a ministry that has counseled thousands of people but he says that at the outset all of them are struggling with the wrong kind of repentance. And the problem is that “not only is this wrong repentance extremely emotionally unhealthy, but it actually produces more death and more sin. The damage this mentality does to your soul and your intimacy with God is far worse that [sic] the consequences of your sin itself, so in His wisdom, God will not help you overcome your sin if it means it affirms this mentality.” Got your attention yet?